Mobile wireless communication devices, such as a cellular telephone or a wireless personal digital assistant, can provide a wide variety of communication services including, for example, voice communication, text messaging, internet browsing, and electronic mail. Mobile wireless communication devices can operate in a wireless communication network of overlapping “cells”, each cell providing a geographic area of wireless signal coverage that extends from a radio network subsystem located in the cell. The radio network subsystem can include a base transceiver station (BTS) in a Global System for Communications (GSM) network or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network or a Node B in a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network. The radio network subsystem can also be referred to as a radio access network (RAN) in a CDMA network.
The mobile wireless communication device can receive signals transmitted from one or more cells in the wireless communication network. The radio network subsystems in each of the cells can be located at different distances from the mobile wireless communication device, and therefore signals received at the mobile wireless communication device can vary in signal strength and/or signal quality. The mobile wireless communication device can measure and monitor the received signals to determine to which cells a connection can be achieved and maintained. Together with one or more radio network subsystems in the wireless communication network, the mobile wireless communication device can select to which cells to connect and disconnect as the mobile wireless communication device moves throughout the wireless network.
Multi-functional mobile wireless communication devices can offer the user a combination of voice and data connections. Some wireless communication network technologies, such as the third generation (3G) UMTS, can provide voice and data connections simultaneously, while other wireless communication network technologies such as the second generation (2G) CDMA 2000, can provide voice and data connections individually but not simultaneously. The mobile wireless communication device can connect to a wireless communication network that can offer “non-simultaneous” voice and data connections by switching between voice and data connections rapidly, thereby permitting the user both services with minimal interruption. In some implementations, a voice connection can take precedence over a data connection, and the mobile wireless communication device can suspend or disconnect a data connection during a voice connection and later re-establish the data connection. Originating a voice connection can include multiple call origination retries when a first call origination fails. The call iterations can repeat at widely spaced time intervals, and a data connection can be re-established in between voice call originations. If the data connection is not properly terminated before any of the voice call originations, then the data connection can terminate improperly resulting in a dropped data connection, which can be logged as a device fault by the network for the mobile wireless communication device and waste network resources.
Thus there exists a need to control voice and data connections more effectively between a mobile wireless communication device and a wireless communication network.